Chapter 45: Snowy Night and Unwanted Attention
Gu Qinian lowered his long lashes.
His gaze fell on Gu Tang’s hand.
That pale, slender hand had just been resting on his arm a moment ago, but now it had shifted onto his knee, lying there with complete ease and comfort.
If Gu Tang knew what he was thinking, he probably would not look so natural.
A flicker passed through Gu Qinian’s deep black eyes.
He closed them. A few seconds later, when he opened them again, every trace of emotion had already been tucked away.
When they got off the cable car, Gu Tang discovered that the cosplaying pair in front of them had gotten off too. They were actually very young, just a little couple. The moment they stepped down, they put their flowing white wigs back on and struck poses near the station for photos. Only after they finished taking pictures did they walk away hand in hand, all clingy and affectionate.
Not an old married couple.
A young couple.
And they seemed to have a very sweet relationship.
Gu Tang was staring at them in a daze when he suddenly felt something between his fingers. Looking down, he saw that young master Gu had slipped his fingers into the gaps between his.
Their fingers were intertwined.
Exactly like the white-haired little couple ahead of them.
Thinking of how he himself had been the one to tell young master Gu to learn from them, Gu Tang turned red and muttered in a small voice, “Stop copying them. They’re not a good example…”
“What’s wrong with them?”
Young master Gu’s dark black pupils carried a look of confusion, as though he truly did not understand and was waiting for an explanation.
Thinking that he had corrupted innocent young master Gu, Gu Tang’s face grew even redder. “Anyway, we’re not copying them anymore.”
Young master Gu glanced at the tightly clasped hands of the pair ahead, then looked down at his own hand entwined with Gu Tang’s. Tilting his head innocently, he asked, “You don’t want to hold hands with me?”
Of course that wasn’t it!
He had held this hand since childhood. It was just…
The posture was wrong.
Gu Tang tried to pull his hand free so they could switch to a more normal way of holding hands, but the other boy’s grip was too tight.
He couldn’t pull away…
“I think this is pretty nice.”
As young master Gu spoke, his thumb even gently stroked the back of Gu Tang’s hand a few times.
The sensation sent a current-like tingling through Gu Tang. Then he saw the couple ahead stop and steal a kiss, and his scalp instantly went numb. “No, no more copying, no more! I only used them as an example because I thought they were an old married couple…”
Watching Gu Tang desperately try to explain, Gu Qinian pushed his tongue lightly against the inside of his cheek.
Actually, he thought either example was fine.
An old married couple was still a couple.
The more Gu Tang explained, the more hopelessly tangled his words became. The very moment he had brought them up as an example, he had already chosen the wrong reference point.
Why on earth had he picked some married couple? He should’ve picked brothers!
But there weren’t any brothers around them who were this physically close, so Gu Tang simply gave up on finding an example and said directly, “That’s not important. The important part is that you’re not allowed to do extreme sports!”
Gu Tang’s eyes were already big to begin with, and now they were round from emphasis. His berry-like lips, full and rosy, moved with each word, making his babyish face look especially adorable.
So adorable it made people want to pinch it.
Behind his back, Gu Qinian rubbed the fingers of his free hand together, though his face still looked perfectly serious. “Mm.”
“Good boy, Niannian.” Seeing that young master Gu had listened, Gu Tang felt deeply gratified.
And just like that, he forgot all about letting go of the other boy’s hand.
Gu Qinian lowered his eyes to the fingers interlocked with his own, and the corner of his mouth lifted involuntarily.
The area near the cable car station had an excellent view.
That was exactly why the cosplay couple had paused there for so long earlier.
The photographer suddenly felt inspired and asked the students to stop there as well, wanting to take a few extra photos and a short video.
After all that commotion, nearly an hour passed.
During that whole time, the ski lift continued operating. Plenty of people from the advanced slopes came down from the top of the mountain, then took the lift back up to go again.
When the cable car arrived once more and the doors opened, a silver figure stepped out.
The reflective silver fabric flashed hard in the sunlight, so dazzling that it immediately caught Gu Tang’s eye.
Qiao Lili and Xu Wei lit up the moment they saw a handsome guy and immediately began whispering excitedly to each other.
“Isn’t that the one in the silver ski suit from earlier?!”
“He didn’t seem that tall from far away, but up close he’s so tall!”
“Could he be a professional skier?”
Gu Tang didn’t know enough about skiing to tell. He remembered that the man’s movements had been light and graceful, but whether he was professional or not, Gu Tang couldn’t say.
The man had a long, elegant frame, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. His goggles covered most of his face, leaving only a sharply defined chin visible. He looked to be in his early twenties, like a university student. There was a warm smile on his lips, the sort that naturally gave off friendliness.
But maybe because Gu Tang couldn’t see his eyes, he felt that the smile looked a bit fake.
Like it was covered by a mask.
“You’re looking at him again.”
Young master Gu’s voice rang out coldly.
Gu Tang jumped and denied it instinctively. “I’m not!”
If he admitted it, what if young master Gu wanted to go learn extreme skiing again?
He had only just talked him out of that!
Gu Tang shook his head like a rattle drum. “Wasn’t looking, wasn’t looking!”
“…”
Gu Qinian bit down slightly on his back teeth.
He had only just sorted out his own feelings about Gu Tang, and now in the next breath he saw the little brat staring at some handsome man. How could anyone feel good about that?
“Do you think he’s handsome?” young master Gu asked sourly.
Gu Tang answered without thinking, “Not at all!”
Young master Gu gave a cold snort. “You didn’t even look, so how would you know he isn’t?”
Gu Tang: “…”
Little Gu Qinian had learned bad habits!
He actually knew how to trap him with words now!
But Gu Tang was quite skilled at handling him. He took a deep breath, got up, and went to hold young master Gu’s hand.
Just like before.
Fingers intertwined.
At times like these, you had to learn from scumbags—if you weren’t caught red-handed, you denied everything to the death!
Feeling guilty, Gu Tang only wanted to leave the danger zone as quickly as possible, so he dragged the other boy away at top speed.
Inside the cable car station, the man in the silver ski suit removed his goggles, revealing an exceptionally handsome face.
Squinting, he looked in the direction the two boys had gone, the smile at the corner of his lips gradually lifting higher.
Before dinner, Gu Tang and the rest still had a heavy filming workload to complete.
“Hey! Handsome guy, smile a little!”
The photographer was so anxious he nearly pulled his hair out.
During the shooting down below, everything had been fine. As long as the pretty, cool, tall boy was in front of the cute little boy, his facial expression would always soften. If luck was good, they could even catch a few shots of him smiling.
But once they reached the mountaintop, his face had gone completely frozen over.
Could it be because the summit was too cold?
Gu Qinian wasn’t unable to smile because of the cold. It was because every time he thought of the way Gu Tang had looked at that man in the silver ski suit, he got irritated.
Irritated and burning inside—how could he possibly smile?
Sensing that young master Gu was in a bad mood, Gu Tang said to the photographer, “How about you shoot the others first? I’ll talk to him for a bit.”
The photographer couldn’t have agreed faster.
He wanted to finish shooting and wrap up work early too.
“Go ahead, go ahead. Talk to him properly. If his expression improves, we can finish up in no time!”
“Okay, thank you.”
After greeting the photographer, Gu Tang pulled young master Gu aside.
“Niannian, are you tired?”
The moment he finished asking, he saw young master Gu casually unscrew a bottle of water with one hand and move to hand it to him.
Gu Tang: “…”
That didn’t look like someone who lacked energy at all.
Once the bottle was held in front of him, the other boy made no move to take it back, even gave it a small shake, clearly urging him to drink.
Without thinking much, Gu Tang lowered his head and took a few sips straight from the bottle in the other boy’s hand.
He didn’t notice that the moment his lips touched the rim, young master Gu’s gaze darkened just a little.
“Not drinking anymore?”
When Gu Tang looked up, Gu Qinian withdrew the bottle, turned it slightly, and placed his own lips against the same spot Gu Tang had just drunk from.
Gu Tang froze.
Young master Gu was a neat freak. A serious one.
When they were little, Gu Tang used to love biting off half a candy and giving the other half to young master Gu. But after growing older and realizing how severe young master Gu’s cleanliness obsession was, he stopped sharing candy with him that way—besides, the other boy didn’t even like sweets much.
It wasn’t as though young master Gu disliked him, but even so, there was no reason they had to drink from the exact same side of the bottle…
His messy thoughts were interrupted by the other boy’s cold voice.
“What did you want to say?”
Gu Tang snapped back to himself. “Oh, I was going to ask if, when they shoot later, Niannian could smile a little?”
Looking down at him, Gu Qinian said in a low, unhappy voice, “So after seeing someone who can smile, you’ve started disliking people who can’t?”
Gu Tang looked blank. “Huh?”
It took him a moment to realize that Gu Qinian was talking about the guy in the silver ski suit.
“Who said that?”
Gu Tang leaned forward slightly and bumped his shoulder lightly against young master Gu’s. “Niannian is handsome even when he doesn’t smile.”
Gu Qinian’s throat shifted slightly as he turned his face away. “That’s just sugar-coated flattery.”
Gu Tang: “?”
How was that sugar-coated flattery?
It was from the bottom of his heart!
When young master Gu didn’t smile, his face looked so high-end—like one of those international supermodels in fashion editorials, all cold, aloof, mysterious, and captivating, yet impossible to approach.
“But this is a campus magazine. They want sunshine and liveliness, not icy coolness.”
“Just smile once, okay? It looks even better when you smile!”
Gu Tang coaxed and cajoled at the same time, even reaching up with two fingers to try pushing up the corners of young master Gu’s mouth. “Like this—just lift them a tiny bit…”
“Like what?”
Suddenly, young master Gu stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
Gu Tang instinctively retreated until his back hit a tree with a soft thump, making snow shiver loose from the branches overhead.
The bits of snow floated down in a soft shower.
But because the other boy’s tall body shielded him completely, most of the snow landed on young master Gu instead.
For no clear reason, the whole thing felt oppressively intimate.
Like some little animal cornered against a tree, Gu Tang curled up slightly, hands drawn in. Then, noticing the snow on the other boy, he kindly gathered his courage and reached out with his little paws to brush it off.
Carefully, he made a smile to demonstrate. “Smile like this, okay? Have you learned it?”
“No.”
Gu Qinian braced a hand against the tree and lowered his body further, dark eyes like a deep pool fixed on him. “Can you teach me again?”
Gu Tang swallowed.
One foot lifted unconsciously, the toe rubbing shyly at a tree root behind him.
This posture between him and young master Gu…
It really felt like one of those tree-pin moments…
He vaguely felt that something was strange, but the other boy’s face was far too close. With beauty magnified several times over, Gu Tang felt dizzy from looking at him, and his brain stopped being able to think properly. All he could manage to mumble was, “Think of something happy. Then naturally you’ll smile…”
“Something happy?”
Young master Gu raised a brow.
Gu Tang nodded hard. “Does Niannian have anything that makes him especially happy?”
“Being with you.”
Young master Gu answered very quickly, his tone calm.
Gu Tang blanked out for a moment before realizing what he meant.
That simply being with him was the happy thing.
A little flower instantly bloomed in Gu Tang’s heart.
At once, he forgot how awkward their posture was and grabbed the hem of young master Gu’s clothes, eyes curving. “Me too!”
“The happiest thing is celebrating our birthday together with Niannian every year!”
“Really?”
Though his tone sounded casual, Gu Qinian’s brows and eyes softened, and a smile naturally bloomed on his lips.
Gu Tang was stunned by that smile.
[Host! Good news! Male lead career branch 3—activated!]
Gu Tang still hadn’t recovered from seeing young master Gu smile when the system’s voice suddenly rang out. He blinked in confusion. “What is branch 3?”
The previous two times a career branch had appeared, it had at least made sense.
There had been some kind of incident that could push young master Gu toward a different career branch—shooting a school magazine, seeing someone ski.
But now nothing had happened.
He had only thought young master Gu’s smile looked beautiful…
[Let me see what career branch 3 is…]
[U-using beauty to curry favor?!]
Gu Tang jumped. “What kind of nonsense is that?!!”
The system had no idea why the male lead’s career branches kept coming up with such bizarre, flashy nonsense either. In its panic, it started frantically flipping through data in Gu Tang’s mind.
Meanwhile, Gu Tang heard the rustling of the system searching through files and also saw young master Gu, lips still curved, saying in a soft, tea-scented voice—
“So whose smile looks better—mine or his?”
Gu Tang: “…?”
No!
His young master Gu was supposed to be like the original novel described—rising through ability, building his way up by competence. He absolutely could not walk down some road of living off his face!
No one was allowed to make young master Gu sell smiles!
Not even him!
Ten minutes later, the two of them returned to the filming area.
The photographer looked full of expectation. “Did handsome guy learn how to smile?”
Instead, he found that not only had the beautiful tall boy stopped smiling, even the candy dumpling-like baby-faced younger boy had stopped smiling too.
Gu Tang’s face was utterly serious. “Just shoot it like this.”
The photographer: “?”
Had they made a mistake?
They had gone off to learn how to smile, not how to keep a straight face, hadn’t they?!
Lifting his chin, Gu Tang kept a perfectly solemn expression and declared with firm righteousness, “A campus magazine is supposed to show ‘unity, friendship, seriousness, and liveliness.’”
“The two of us are the ‘serious’ part.”
Photographer: “…”
But it had to be said—when it came to fashion, the face did most of the work.
With two boys this good-looking standing together with stern expressions, they looked upright and noble, full of righteous energy.
It actually gave off a very distinct aura.
If only one of them wasn’t smiling, it might’ve looked a bit lonely. But with both of them paired together, there was no sense of discord at all.
The photographer suddenly found inspiration, raised the camera, and started shooting like mad.
[Reporting, Host! Male lead career branch 3—closed!]
Only after hearing that did Gu Tang secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
Good grief…
A child being too beautiful was also a headache!
The sky darkened toward evening.
At last, a full day of shooting finally ended, and everyone returned to the RV camp to rest.
Gu Tang rubbed his cheeks, which were aching from keeping a serious face all day without smiling, then turned to young master Gu angrily. “Sometimes I really want to cover up this face of yours.”
Who even knew who young master Gu had been trying to use his beauty on earlier?
In any case, covering the face was safest!
Gu Qinian had no idea why Gu Tang had originally wanted to teach him how to smile, then suddenly stopped, and even insisted that the two of them go around making stern faces together.
He tilted his head toward him. “What, am I too shameful to be seen?”
Gu Tang ignored the tea-scented bait of that question entirely. While still rubbing his face, he sighed worriedly. “Niannian, thank goodness you weren’t born in ancient times.”
Gu Qinian: “?”
Gu Tang glanced at him. “If your face existed in ancient times, you’d absolutely be the kind that could bring disaster to a nation and keep kings from attending court.”
If anyone else had said something like that, Gu Qinian would probably already have punched them.
But coming from Gu Tang, it sounded very pleasant.
Resting his head against one arm and drawing up his long legs, young master Gu leaned back on the small sofa in the RV, eyes closed and smugly satisfied.
While young master Gu was secretly feeling pleased with himself, Gu Tang was genuinely troubled.
His little Gu Qinian had grown up this beautiful—when the time came for him to find a partner, that would be such a headache. What kind of looks would be enough to match up with young master Gu?
The system also joined in worrying foolishly.
[The male lead’s romance line is probably doomed to die young…]
Gu Tang: “Shut up! Ptui ptui ptui!”
Young master Gu would definitely find someone he liked!
Hearing Gu Tang muttering to himself in broken fragments, Gu Qinian said nothing. He simply stood up, picked up a small mirror, and held it in front of him.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Gu Tang wore a blank expression. “What?”
Gu Qinian didn’t know how much more obviously he could hint, so after pressing his lips together, he said softly, “…The one in the mirror is pretty good.”
“Oh.”
Straight-man logic at full force, Gu Tang scratched his head. “Too bad I can’t find my parents. I don’t know whether I have a younger sister or not.”
If he did, then young master Gu becoming his brother-in-law wouldn’t be bad at all.
That would make them even more closely related!
“…”
Gu Qinian frowned and smack, flipped the little mirror face-down onto the table.
Gu Tang’s babyish face went blank with confusion. “???”
Why was he angry again?
Children really did get harder to raise as they grew older…
After dinner, Xie Qian proposed going out to look at the snow, the stars, and the moon.
Young master Gu hated the cold and had little interest in outdoor activities.
Gu Tang, meanwhile, was busy decorating the RV.
After midnight tonight, it would be both his and young master Gu’s birthday. Since they were away from home and had come in such a rush, there wasn’t much they could really prepare, but there at least had to be some simple festive atmosphere.
Fortunately, after asking the campsite staff, he managed to get birthday hats, balloons, little candles, and similar things.
Because they found Gu Tang adorable, one of the female staff members at the campsite even gave him a small birthday cake for free.
Carrying the little cake back, Gu Tang was full of excitement, happiness written all over his face.
It just so happened that the photographer came by at that same moment and asked Gu Qinian to go with him to discuss tomorrow’s shooting arrangements.
Young master Gu had come as the representative of the dean, so he did indeed have to cooperate with that sort of work.
Gu Tang came back just as young master Gu was about to head out.
As the two brushed past each other, Gu Qinian caught hold of him and lowered his head to murmur in his ear, “We’ll celebrate our birthday when I come back. Wait for me.”
The warm breath of his words brushed over Gu Tang’s ear.
It made him itch, but he was holding the cake and had no free hand to scratch it.
So he simply rubbed his ear against young master Gu’s shoulder instead, saying as he did, “Go ahead, then. I’ll get things ready!”
At a glance, they looked almost like a pair of mandarin ducks crossing necks.
Not exactly a proper posture.
Xie Qian leaned his head out the RV window. He hadn’t spotted any stars yet, but he did see this blinding display. “…Hello! Can either of you see that there is still another person here?”
After finishing rubbing at his ear, Gu Tang looked up. “We see you now. Come help me decorate.”
Xie Qian: “?”
“You two are really experts at dragging people in as free labor!”
Gu Tang didn’t take that thoughtless joke to heart, but Gu Qinian shot Xie Qian a cold look.
Scared, Xie Qian quickly covered his own mouth and shrank back into the RV like a hermit crab, then went to help Gu Tang blow up balloons.
At around ten o’clock, there were a few light knocks on the RV door.
“Niannian!”
Gu Tang ran to open it, but when he pulled it open, the ones standing outside were Ye Xiao, Qiao Lili, and Xu Wei.
“Wow! Why do you have balloons in your RV too?”
Qiao Lili poked her head in with surprise.
Gu Tang had no choice but to explain that after midnight it would be his and young master Gu’s birthday, so they were putting up a few simple decorations.
Qiao Lili and Xu Wei immediately raised their hands. “We’ll help!”
Ye Xiao, being much more reserved, only asked gently whether it would be convenient for them to come in and hang out.
Of course Gu Tang welcomed them.
The more people there were, the livelier it would be.
The moment Xie Qian found out three more helpers had arrived, he cheered in delight. “Balloon inflation manpower plus three!”
The group got to work enthusiastically.
Then suddenly, Xu Wei’s movement paused, and her face turned a bit pale.
Gu Tang noticed that something seemed off and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Xu Wei shook her head. It looked like there was something difficult to explain to him, so instead she turned and whispered a few words to Ye Xiao.
“Ah…”
Ye Xiao patted Xu Wei and soothed her. “Don’t worry, I brought some. Come on, let’s go to the restroom.”
Xie Qian was still completely focused on blowing up balloons and understood nothing of what was happening.
Gu Tang had spent so much time in hospitals in his previous life that he had learned quite a bit of basic hygiene knowledge, so when he saw the girls looking like they were facing a great enemy, he had a vague idea what the issue was.
But the campsite restroom was in a pretty remote spot, and it was pitch-black outside.
Gu Tang took the flashlight provided in the RV and asked, “Do you need me to go with you?”
Xu Wei had originally felt too embarrassed to trouble a boy.
But after glancing at the pitch-dark night outside, she nodded rapidly at Gu Tang. “Yes, yes, yes—please, that would help a lot.”
The funny thing about these situations was that once you accompanied someone through one like this, you somehow became sisters.
On the way there, Gu Tang only walked in front, holding up the flashlight while the three girls followed behind him.
By the time they were coming back—they had become four little swans walking neatly in a row.
And he had somehow blended in perfectly.
Gu Tang: “…”
“Hi, baby!”
Suddenly, an extremely rude whistle came from up ahead.
Three drunken foreigners blocked their path, surrounding them while speaking filthy nonsense.
The formation of the “four little swans” instantly changed.
With a flashlight in one hand, Gu Tang spread his other arm wide like the mother hen in eagle-catching-chicks, protecting the three girls behind him.
“What do you want?”
He demanded in fluent English.
Even Ye Xiao, obsessed with practicing her English listening, glanced sideways in surprise. His pronunciation sounded really good.
“Is this a boy?”
One of the foreigners leaned closer, wanting to get a better look, but Gu Tang immediately flashed the flashlight in his eyes.
Straightening his chest, Gu Tang said, “Obviously I am!”
The three burly foreigners burst out laughing.
“Which one of them are you dating?”
“We can let you take one woman away.”
“No, no, no—we changed our minds. Because you’re even cuter than the girls, my sweetie.”
Gu Tang nearly wanted to throw up last night’s dinner. “Get lost.”
One of the foreigners, seeing how slender he was, stepped forward and tried to grab him. “Sweetie, didn’t anyone ever teach you manners?”
“What manners do you need for trash?”
Gu Tang wasn’t short, but standing against burly men nearly two meters tall still put him at a disadvantage.
The moment the man came close, the reeking smell of alcohol hit him in the face, along with hot, stale sweat that almost made him gag.
The foreigner thought Gu Tang would be scared and wore a disgusting smile across his fleshy face.
But instead of retreating, Gu Tang moved forward.
He darted several steps ahead, opening distance between himself and the girls, making his own body the shield in front of them. Then, with a nimble leap, he swung the metal flashlight down onto the man’s head with a loud bonk.
The foreigner howled like some kind of ogre and staggered backward two steps.
Seeing their companion hurt, the other two lunged forward with claws out, shouting that they would tear Gu Tang to pieces.
A bead of cold sweat slid down Gu Tang’s temple.
One against three—and against men this size—was a bit too much.
He glanced at his life value bar.
Still full enough to hold on for a while.
So he tilted his head and gave the three girls behind him a look: Run!
Ye Xiao was the first to react. Grabbing Qiao Lili and Xu Wei, she ran. As long as they got away, they could bring help back for Gu Tang.
The three foreigners were drunk and sluggish. With Gu Tang blocking them, it wasn’t easy for them to grab the escaping girls.
Watching the girls slip through their fingers, the three men became furious.
The way they looked at Gu Tang gleamed with disgusting intent now, and the curses spilling from their mouths were foul beyond measure.
“Heh, if you let them go, then you can take their place!”
Gu Tang swallowed and tightened his grip on the metal flashlight.
It was his only weapon.
The three giant men lunged at him together.
Gu Tang had sharp dynamic vision. Even in the dim light, he instantly caught the flaw in one of their movements.
No matter what, if he could take one down, that was still one less to deal with.
He aimed for that man and used the flashlight like a hammer.
“Ahhhhh—!”
Three cries rang out at the same time.
Gu Tang: “?”
Suspicious, he looked down at his flashlight. He had definitely only hit one of them…
Three huge bodies crashed to the ground, exposing the figures behind them.
Two people?!!
Gu Tang shone the flashlight over and discovered young master Gu on the left and an unfamiliar person standing to the right.
He really had to praise the quality of the campsite flashlight.
It still hadn’t broken.
It went without saying that young master Gu was indeed someone who had practiced martial arts for years. He hadn’t even used a weapon, just bare fists, and had knocked one of the men down with a single punch. Right now he was standing there, disgustedly wiping blood off his fingers.
The other person didn’t have young master Gu’s terrifyingly destructive fists, so his weapon of choice for beating up the thug had been the ski goggles in his hand.
“A pity about this pair of goggles. They cost over two million.”
That was what he said, but he didn’t even bother checking whether the goggles had been damaged. He casually tossed them into the trash.
The smile on his mouth never once disappeared.
Gu Tang recognized him.
It was the man in the silver ski suit from earlier that day!
The three foreigners, unable to stand, sprawled on the ground still cursing and shouting that they were going to sue them.
The silver ski suit man’s lips lifted, and though his eyes curved like crescent moons, somehow the smile still never reached them. With long, elegant fingers, he flicked a business card onto the ground in front of them.
“Go ahead. Sue me. Just contact my lawyer.”
“These two students are probably underage. In any country, laying hands on minors is treated as a very serious offense. You can weigh that for yourselves.”
The three foreigners couldn’t win in a fight, and they clearly couldn’t sue someone who obviously looked rich either. Realizing they had run into the wrong people, they didn’t even dare touch the card. They scrambled to their feet and fled.
The silver ski suit turned back around, still smiling in exactly the same way, and looked first at young master Gu. “Nice moves.”
Then he took a candy out of his pocket and offered it to Gu Tang. “Be more careful next time.”
Gu Tang looked at the man’s smile, then at the candy in his hand, and shook his head. “Thank you, but I don’t eat things from strangers.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Throughout the whole encounter, the man in silver looked like he was wearing a mask. Even the curve of his lips and eyes hadn’t changed. “That’s a good habit. Your family raised you well.”
Young master Gu had no good opinion of the silver ski suit. After wiping his hands clean, he came over, caught hold of Gu Tang, and said, “Let’s go.”
Gu Tang let himself be pulled along for a few steps, then looked back once more at the man in silver.
He found that the man was still standing in exactly the same spot, not moving at all.
Only after the two boys’ backs had faded into the distance did the silver ski suit move slightly, closing his hand around the candy Gu Tang had refused.
“Young Master Yu! Young Master Yu, why are you here?”
Someone came running over, and, following the silver ski suit’s line of sight, also spotted the backs of the two boys up ahead.
The rich people’s circles played all kinds of wild games, and especially this one in front of him…
The man gathered his courage and tried to flatter him. “Could it be that Young Master Yu likes one of them? Should I…”
He didn’t get to finish.
Young Master Yu turned his face toward him.
His eyes were still curved in a smile.
Only the line of his lips seemed to flatten just slightly.
Before the man could understand what was happening, a sharp pain struck his abdomen.
And then he crumpled slowly to the ground.
Looking down at the fallen man, the silver ski suit reshaped that smiling curve at his eyes and mouth, but his voice was cold enough to freeze bone.
“Filthy.”
***
Author’s Note:
Gu Niannian: I looked away for one moment, and a monster set its sights on him.
Tang Tang: QAQ
